5 Must-Have WordPress Tools Every Developer Should Use

WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world. WordPress powers more than 40% of websites. Besides being the most popular CMS, it’s elementary as well. Tons of WordPress tools are available online that assist users in building, testing, launching, and maintaining their websites.

Fortunately, developers can find a trusted tool for almost every operation. However, not every tool is worth using. In fact, many tools offer outstanding features, but they are useless. Therefore, when picking WordPress tools, you must be very cautious.

Want to know about the best WordPress tools for your website? Here they are!

1. Docker

Docker is a popular WordPress tool that many developers and website owners use. It allows users to build development environments that are portable, consistent, and repeatable. With Docker, you can define your environment once and reuse it across projects, machines, or team members.

With Docker, you can launch containers with just a command, isolate projects from each other, and replicate your production environment with unbelievable accuracy. Plus, Docker supports advanced configs like volumes, networking, and service orchestration if you want to go deeper. It’s the perfect tool for modern workflows where speed and precision matter.

Key Features

• Spin up isolated development environments in seconds
• Define tech stacks using simple YAML files (Docker Compose)
• Supports PHP, MySQL, NGINX, Redis, and more
• Version-controlled environments shared across teams
• Run multiple WordPress projects with different configurations side-by-side

Best For

• Developers managing multiple projects
• Teams needing consistent local dev environments
• Freelancers wanting to speed up setup and deployment

2. Elementor

Are you looking for a complete design toolkit that lives inside WordPress? You need to try Elementor. It performs all the design-related tasks. Therefore, it’s much more than a page builder. And the best part? If you have Elementor on your side, you don’t need to touch a line of CSS unless you want to. It allows you to build pages visually, drag in widgets, customize layouts, and tweak typography. And it performs all these things in real time.

For developers, it’s a productivity booster. You can prototype quickly, hand off sites faster, and inject code when needed. Elementor also plays well with custom fields, dynamic content, and theme builders. You get complete control over every inch of your website.

Key Features

• Drag-and-drop live page editor
• Custom headers, footers, archive pages, and single templates
• Integration with ACF, CPT UI, and WooCommerce
• Responsive design controls for mobile, tablet, and desktop
• Built-in motion effects and animations
• Extendable via custom widgets and code

Best For

• Freelancers building client sites
• Agencies needing rapid delivery
• Developers looking for frontend flexibility

3. Query Monitor

Query Monitor is a debugging plugin that’s essential for almost every WordPress website. Actually, our websites face some problems from time to time. That’s where Query Monitor comes in handy. It tells you everything going on under the hood.

Unlike generic analytics tools, it focuses on technical diagnostics, revealing database queries, PHP errors, hooks, and script loading times. This makes it invaluable for optimizing slow websites or troubleshooting plugin conflicts. Moreover, it adds a live debug panel to your admin bar so you can inspect issues immediately. The best thing about Query Monitor is that it’s lightweight, easy to install, and works seamlessly with most hosting setups.

Key Features

• Tracks and logs all database queries by plugin, theme, or function
• Monitors HTTP requests, scripts, styles, and AJAX calls
• Debugs REST API responses and template hierarchy
• Identifies slow queries and performance bottlenecks
• Highlights PHP errors, warnings, and notices

Best For

• Developers are troubleshooting performance issues
• Plugin and theme developers
• Anyone trying to debug slow or buggy WordPress behavior

4. GitHub


GitHub is the industry standard for version control and collaborative coding. It uses Git, a distributed version control system, to track changes in your WordPress projects. Moreover, GitHub gives you a visual, organized interface to manage branches, handle pull requests, roll back changes, and even deploy code automatically.

GitHub Actions automate testing, building, and deployment. Moreover, its Issues and Projects help manage tasks. Hence, you can write code, run CI/CD workflows, and discuss changes, all in one place.

Key Features

• Create private or public Git repositories
• Collaborate through pull requests and issue tracking
• Automate tasks with GitHub Actions (CI/CD)
• Integrate with deployment tools and hosting services
• Secure code scanning and secret detection

Best For

• Developers working on theme/plugin codebases
• Teams collaborating across time zones
• Agencies needing automated deployment pipelines

5. Rank Math


Most of us develop websites to rank them on different search engines. If a website doesn’t rank or reach people, it’s entirely useless. Do you want to optimize your website for a higher ranking? If so, you need to try Rank Math. It’s a powerful plugin that simplifies on-page optimization for WordPress websites. It’s one of the most feature-packed SEO plugins for WordPress.

Whether you’re optimizing posts, building sitemaps, or setting up redirects, Rank Math can perform all these tasks. Moreover, unlike many other SEO plugins, it’s effortless to use. Additionally, Rank Math analyzes your content in real time and scores it for SEO friendliness. Using this plugin, you can add schema markup without coding, link your Google accounts, and monitor analytics from the dashboard.

Key Features

• Real-time content analysis and SEO scoring
• Schema generator for articles, products, reviews, etc.
• XML sitemap and robots.txt management
• Google Analytics and Search Console integration
• 404 monitoring and redirection management
• WooCommerce SEO optimization

Best For

• Developers launching SEO-ready client sites
• Bloggers and other website owners

Conclusion

WordPress development isn’t just about knowing what to code. It’s about building smart and managing websites well. If you want to develop and manage your WordPress website perfectly, you need to try these five tools. Each of them uniquely helps you and solves various problems you might encounter. Alternatively, if you are looking for trusted WordPress plugins that can help you manage your tasks, visit Digino. On this platform, you will find information about different digital nomad tools that can help you elevate your work.